DIY Probation

The announcement that the government is keen to encourage public sector workers to band together, form John Lewis style co-operatives and bid to manage their organisation at first sounds barmy, but how many of us have said in the pub that we could indeed run things better? I know I have. 

However I find the John Lewis analogy a little unfortunate given its obvious middle class exclusive nature, its unhappy connections with the parliamentary expenses scandal (remember all claims were measured against the so-called John Lewis list) and its sheer arrogance in the way it demands certain planning criteria to be met before deigning to plant any branch in a city. I digress, but anyone familiar with the new store in Liverpool couldn't get a better illustration of the John Lewis attitude to society. The rear end of the store backs onto the bus station, but there are no doors, whilst overhead a bridge delivers the middle classes direct from their 4x4's safely parked in the multi-storey. I hear the same is planned for Leeds, only with the rear to the market and bridge over the Headrow linking a new car park. 

Having got that off my chest, the John Lewis ownership model, with no employees but 'partners' instead is an interesting one. Is it so fanciful in this new climate of voluntarism, Big Society, reduction in bureaucracy and encouragement of innovation to think that at least one group of probation managers might have a go at something different? Ideologically I am as much attracted to the notions of mutuality, co-ownership and co-operation as I am to public ownership. It's private companies entering the field of the Criminal Justice System that I have problems with. But then I have problems with bloated Head Offices, too many managers and tiers of management with command and control agenda's.

I think it behoves some part of our profession to prove that it need not be like this. That another model and method of operation is possible with a root and branch examination of all practices. This could be the opportunity to prove that a return to small community-based provision is better and cheaper. That a massive Head Office bureaucracy is unnecessary. That responsibility and discretion could be returned to practitioners. That the focus could return to front line activity in partnership with other agencies, but probation with it's ethical and professional base in control.

Let me give just one concrete example of how I would change things. For many years I was a volunteer with the Samaritans and found that their ethos and method of operation dovetailed neatly with my professional work as a probation officer. Like all organisations it had a management structure and bureaucracy, but the impressive thing was that everyone, from the Chairman, National Officers, Directors downwards all had to do the same amount of duty and face to face contact with the public. This meant that not only was there not an air of hierarchy but also that management never got distanced from the core business of the organisation. I would insist on something similar with all probation managers having to write some PSR's, fill in the damned OASys and actually see clients. I think that would lead to a very different culture with less command and control directives from a distanced management. Come on then - who's up for this?